First steps with SDL Trados Synergy
One of the reasons I went to the ATA Conference was to find some project management software that is targeted at the translation market. This year, it seems like I am spending more and more time on managing translations and while I like to do this and it is a nice change of pace from actually translating into German.
Some of my recent projects had up to 10 languages and since I prefer to work with freelance translators, I have to open 10 translation memories, analyze 10 files, write 10 emails, wait for 10 replies, post-process 10 translations, file 10 invoices and last but of course not least, get 10 invoices paid. Yes, it is as time consuming and tedious as it sounds and I need to streamline my process. This is particularly awful if after all is sent out, you get the dreaded “Oops sorry, we forgot something” email from a developer and have to start over. Somehow, we are way too accessible since we are in the same building - heck, if I get up and look over my cubicle wall, I can even see many of them. Here are my first thoughts on Synergy after setting up a couple of projects.
The Quality of Quality Management - In-House Version
A couple of days ago, I read a post on the Masked Translator: The Quality of Quality Management, which made me smile because similar things seem to happen to me constantly. Somehow, some developers seem to believe that they are qualified to question translations into languages they don’t speak. I just received a charming email from one of my developer colleagues asking me:
I have noticed for the DE locale that many strings containing the value “Standard” are the same as their English equivalent, however the string “Sample” has a value different from it’s English value. Is this correct?
Questions like that get me hopping mad. First, this is something that he could easily check by himself, sparing himself the effort of writing and sending an email, waiting for a reply etc. I am not a fan of Babelfish but I believe in cases like this, looking up “Sample” and “Standard” instantly shows that the translation is correct. I don’t believe it should be used to find translations but I think it can be at times OK to verify the occasional translation. Second, the word standard appears 109 times in the string file for this application. If you assume that I could “forget” to translate it 109 times, you certainly do not have much faith in my skills.
He probably meant well and I really appreciate attention to detail and quality especially with regards to localization, but this seems like misguided micro management.
First Post
It’s almost 7am, and I am sitting at Gate 39 at the Orlando airport, returning from the ATA 2008 Conference which was held in Orlando this year. It was a very nice conference, even though I was not too fond of the location. Previous conferences I attended were in Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco and I much preferred the big city locations. Next year, the ATA has its 50th anniversary and the conference will be in New York. I am praying that I will be able to go, and I somehow wish I hadn’t gone to Orlando because that may have increased my chance to go but you never know.
At the ATA Conference, one of the first seminars I attended was about blogging for translators. I have tried a couple of times to blog but usually I stopped after a short time, mostly because I don’t really have too much interesting stuff to talk about. Now, after talking 5 days straight about translation issues and solutions, I realized I actually have a lot to contribute. Being an in-house translator exposes me to a lot of different project types and it seems like every single one of them has its own set of files - and of course each file format comes with a whole new set of issues. So, I am planning on sharing my tips and tricks that I have gathered over the last 10 years of translation.
Special thanks (or blame) for getting me started on this blog to Corinne McKay and Michael Wahlster, and of course Jill Sommer
BTW, on the TV they just said today is the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass). The first thing I have to think of is the BAP song of the same name - one of those songs that will make many people of my generation well up.